Cars drive down the world-famous crooked street, to the annoyance of neighbors who complain about spectators, noise and fumes at all hours.

Cars drive down the world-famous crooked street, to the annoyance of neighbors who complain about spectators, noise and fumes at all hours.

Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

Image 3 of 4

Eminet Hailemariam of Kansas City, Mo., takes pictures of herself at the foot of the crooked part of Lombard Street, a popular attraction for tourists worldwide.

Eminet Hailemariam of Kansas City, Mo., takes pictures of herself at the foot of the crooked part of Lombard Street, a popular attraction for tourists worldwide.

Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

Image 4 of 4

Tourists wait for cars to clear before crossing Lombard Street. Residents along the crooked portion of the street say traffic has reached critical mass, and they want San Francisco to restrict visitor access.

Tourists wait for cars to clear before crossing Lombard Street. Residents along the crooked portion of the street say traffic has reached critical mass, and they want San Francisco to restrict visitor access.

Photo: Michael Short, The Chronicle

Winding trail of tension along Lombard Street

1 / 4

Back to Gallery

The one-block stretch of Lombard Street between Hyde and Leavenworth is more than just the "crookedest street in the world."

It's a photo op, a tourist icon and a must-see, must-drive for every visitor to San Francisco. But residents wish they could make it clear there's something it isn't - an amusement park ride.

"Tourists really feel like it is Disneyland," says Jim Hickman, who's lived there 17 years. "They feel like it's not real. I've had them take pictures of me taking out the garbage."

Oh, come on, you say. What's the harm if a few out-of-towners block traffic for a minute to take a photo? Hot spots like this are what fuel the city's multibillion-dollar tourist industry. So what if they treat the residents like extras on a movie set? Didn't they know they were moving into a tourist mecca?

They did. And what they'd like to say is, until you are on Lombard on a typical weekend, you have no idea what it's like. It's crazy right now, and this isn't even the busy summer season.

"Just as an example," says Greg Brundage, who lives on one of the hairpins, "last Sunday it was chaos. There were over 200 people in the street at the bottom of the hill and 27 people in my little driveway."

And those were pedestrians. Cars roll down the hill in slow motion at all hours. Worse yet, it isn't just the short curvy stretch that is affected. The traffic jam stretches back over the hill and down to Van Ness, where traffic backs up along steep residential streets and drivers test their clutch-popping skills.

"Every summer day it is screeching tires and burning clutches all afternoon," says David Crimmins, who is working on the issue for the Russian Hill Neighbors. "You've got engines revving, oil dripping and all kinds of mayhem. With the smell, no one wants to open their windows."

And once they've negotiated the hill and navigated the curves, many drivers and walkers stop in the street at the intersection of Lombard and Leavenworth to take a photo or enjoy the view.

"We've had an incredible amount of incidents with people walking down the middle of the road," says Supervisor Mark Farrell, who is trying to find some fixes. "They congregate at the base of the intersection and at times won't even move when traffic is trying to get through.

"The crookedest street has been in icon in San Francisco for years, but when it takes an hour and a half to get to your house, it becomes a neighborhood issue."

OK, so this is an innovative city. Why can't we fix that? For starters, nearly everyone agrees, making the curvy street a pedestrian-only zone would be a huge help. Maybe residents could have a special pass or a gate could be installed.

Maintaining access

City officials answer with three words: not a chance.

"The neighbors want to shut the street to just allow residents," says Catherine Stefani, an aide in Farrell's office. "And the city attorney's office has told me emphatically that can't happen."

The problem, says Deputy City Attorney Buck Delventhal, is California Vehicle Code 21106.1, which prohibits the use of gates "which deny or restrict the access of certain members of the public to the street while permitting others."

"So," Delventhal says, "it is not even a controversial issue, even though it comes up every four or five years."

He's right. The Chronicle archives show the idea of barricading the street was first raised in 1979.

But there is some confusion. In 1987, then-state Sen. Quentin Kopp wrote a bill that would allow the Board of Supervisors to restrict traffic on Lombard Street to residents and emergency vehicles. Gov. George Deukmejian signed the bill, but support for closing the street died in San Francisco.

At the time there was some question if the neighbors even supported the restriction. A 1987 poll of residents along the Lombard curves found that they were equally split between closing it down and leaving it open.

"It was unanimous" for restrictions, Brundage says.

Many more tourists

Stefani says Farrell's office was unaware of the 1987 law and intends to bring it to the attention of the city attorney to see if it applies.

Neighbors also challenge the contention that this is just the latest round in a long-debated issue. Farrell's office agrees with the residents, who think that the crowds of tourists have increased dramatically.

"It has really changed in the last three years," Brundage said. "We can't get into our own homes. We all moved here knowing it was a tourist attraction, but this is nothing like it was 15 years ago."

Donating street?

Residents also say tour groups arriving from Asia often land at San Francisco International Airport early in the morning and, because hotel rooms aren't available yet, are loaded onto tour buses and taken to that free attraction - Lombard Street. At times, hundreds of them show up as early as 7 a.m.

It should also be said that the neighbors on the street pay to plant flowers, collect trash and sweep the street. That's led to a suggestion that the city should sell or donate the street to the property owners on the block. At that point the owners could put up a barrier, restrict access to local residents, or even install a tollbooth at the top.

That sounds far-fetched, but Stefani says something is definitely going to change.

"We are committed to fixing this," she said. "There is a solution and we are going to find it."

Latest from the SFGATE homepage:

Click below for the top news from around the Bay Area and beyond. Sign up for our newsletters to be the first to learn about breaking news and more. Go to 'Sign In' and 'Manage Profile' at the top of the page.